The Arrow season 3 finale, “My Name Is Oliver Queen,” airs this Wednesday. In preparation for the episode, we look at what we know about and what we want from the episode.
In the penultimate episode of season 3, “This Is Your Sword,” Malcolm Merlyn revealed to Team Arrow that he and Oliver had been working together all along, and Oliver was never, in fact, brainwashed. However, Oliver’s impending marriage to Nyssa al Ghul and Ra’s declaring that he must use the Alpha-Omega bioweapon on Starling City forced his hand.
Despite their hurt, Team Arrow plus Tatsu, Ray and Malcolm headed for Nanda Parbat, only to be captured and apparently exposed to the virus while Oliver married Nyssa. Meanwhile, Roy and Thea reunited, only for Roy to leave once again and bequeath his Arsenal costume to Thea.
With all that going on, what can we expect from the final episode of season 3? Let’s start with…
What we know
Synopsis
The synopsis for Arrow season 3, episode 23, “My Name Is Oliver Queen,” reads:
“THE HEART-STOPPING SEASON FINALE — Everyone’s lives are in danger as Ra’s al Ghul (guest star Matt Nable) puts forth his final plan. Oliver/Al Sah-him (Stephen Amell) must decide if he’s strong enough to take on this new role and what it will mean for everyone on Team Arrow, and his soul. John Behring directed the episode with story by Greg Berlanti & Andrew Kreisberg and teleplay by Marc Guggenheim & Jake Coburn (#323).”
Watch a promo for the episode:
Crossover
As we see in the promo above, the fastest man alive, Barry Allen, will appear in “My Name Is Oliver Queen,” breaking Team Arrow out of their cell in Nanda Parbat.
With Oliver appearing in the penultimate episode of The Flash season 1, airing this Tuesday, we have to wonder if that’s when Oliver called in a favor with Barry. (Keep in mind that the episode timelines are out of sync due to Arrow airing on a week The Flash was off earlier this spring.)
Extended time
“My Name Is Oliver Queen” will run a full 2 minutes, 33 seconds longer than a usual episode, which tells us there is a lot going on in the episode!
Focus on identity
“We’ve always said the season is about identity, and Oliver trying to decide between being the Arrow and being Oliver Queen,” executive producer Marc Guggenheim says. “That’s obviously very present, as the title suggests, in the finale. Oliver’s arc over the course of the last episodes of the season relates to this question of ‘am I Oliver, or am I the Arrow?’ [It’s] very focused on that threesome” of Oliver, Diggle and Felicity.
Guggenheim also describes the season finale as having the “same epic scope that we’ve established in season 1 and 2″ with “some of the most emotional scenes that we’ve had in a season finale.”
He adds, “We’re at the point in the season where, I think our fans know, it’s usually when the culling happens, so I think everyone knows that they’ve got reason to be afraid.”
No cliffhanger
Despite the uncertainty going into the episode, fans can be assured that there won’t be a traditional cliffhanger at episode’s end. “The season 3 finale of Arrow is very definitive. It really feels like the end, not just of season 3, but of the first three seasons,” Guggenheim says.
No spinoff tie-in
“The Arrow finale doesn’t relate to the spinoff at all,” Guggenheim says of Legends of Tomorrow, which recently received a series order. “It’s pure Arrow.”
(We believe this tie-in will actually happen in the season finale of The Flash, based on this tweet from one of the spinoff’s stars.)
On page 2: What we want from the ‘Arrow’ season 3 finale
With everything that we know about the episode, what are we anticipating?
What we want
Focus on the original trio
Guggenheim has already confirmed that this is the case, but we can’t reiterate enough how much we’re looking forward to seeing Oliver, Diggle, and Felicity front and center once more.
The group has been fractured for much of the season, as Diggle was ready to quit Team Arrow at the beginning of the season to be a father to his new baby daughter. Oliver and Felicity also spent much of the season in an awkward dance related to their romantic feelings for one another that, for various reasons, were not acted upon. And now the group has discovered that Oliver lied to them. Oh yeah, and he kidnapped Lyla.
It was the dynamic of this trio that made many of us fall in love with the series, though, so bringing them to the forefront again will truly feel like a return to the series’ roots.
Ladies kicking butt
Laurel has really come into her own this season, channeling her grief from Sara’s death into becoming Black Canary, so we hope expect she will continue being awesome in the finale.
We’re also looking for Nyssa to regain the agency she lost by being taken back to Nanda Parbat and forced to marry Oliver, and perhaps even Thea to officially suit up as Speedy now that Roy has left his costume to her.
An appropriate farewell for Ray
In the last episode, Ray signed over his company to Felicity, though she wasn’t aware of what she was signing at the time. And with him headlining the spinoff, Ray obviously won’t be on Arrow next season. We hope that however he’s written from the show will do his character justice, as he’s been a bright spot in an otherwise grim season.
Oliver becoming Green Arrow
Oliver is no longer the Hood. The Arrow is gone. So what does that leave for Oliver to return to once, we assume based on the episode title, he drops Al Sah-Him? Oliver Queen’s traditional comic book name, of course. Here’s hoping Oliver coming out victorious against the League of Assassins gives rise to Green Arrow for season 4.
Bonus: Malcolm dying
Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But while we love John Barrowman, Malcolm Merlyn is simply irredeemable after setting the entire season-long arc in motion by brainwashing Thea to kill Sara in the season premiere before using it as blackmail to force Oliver to fight Ra’s al Ghul.
He may claim to love Thea and try to protect her now that his actions have backfired spectacularly, but there’s no getting around the pain and loss he has caused — including the death of his own son. He has outstayed his welcome, and his death would only be a plus.
Arrow‘s season 3 finale airs Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW.